DOI issue:
No. 303 (June 1925)
DOI article:Sheringham, H. T.: The reserves of Mr. Frank Reynolds
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21402#0313
THE RESERVES OF MR. FRANK REYNOLDS
and four chuckles. But, supposing that
Sir Ben Trovato, or some ether well-known
connoisseur, had found this picture, suit-
ably begrimed, reposing in Stoke-on-Trent
amid bedsteads and domestic crockery i
Would it not then have been an Old Master^
And would not the Field and Notes and
Queries have been agitated by new theories
concerning the origins of Association
footballls' The achievement of early painters
sheds so much light incidentally on the
evolution of human affairs that no one
would have been really surprised. But
writers who are concerned with the history
of ball games would have made the ink fly.
And, as one who has done a good deal of
specialised research in regard to outdoor
origins and artistic evidences, I must
confess to a feeling of regret that, in one
of his aspects anyhow, Mr. Reynolds is
not the Old Master whose mantle he has
assumed. He does the trick so well that
he would be uncommonly useful to us.
I am afraid he knows it! There is some-
thing slightly absurd about the enthusiasm
which is so anxious to find new things
among the old. a 0 c 0
Nevertheless, I feel pretty sure that the
absurdity of affairs is not the whole of it
for him. There must come a point at
which the humorous philosopher wonders
whether, after all, seeming irregularities
are not part of the scheme, and this may
show. In various examples of his painting
there is something to be seen which is not,
technically speaking, there. It was per-
haps not without significance that the
cover of Mr. Punch's last Almanack
Number should give just a hint of " hills
beyond," amid blues and greys and up-
lands of the kind that kenned John Peel.
Mr. Punch and Toby were in the fore-
ground, and " F. R." was in the corner,
but I suspect that Frank Reynolds, or a
large part of him, was among those hills.
Possibly he will some day surprise a world
which even yet does not quite appreciate
that honest laughter is the voice of God.
Meanwhile here is gratitude to him for some
precious additions to our fragments of life.
and four chuckles. But, supposing that
Sir Ben Trovato, or some ether well-known
connoisseur, had found this picture, suit-
ably begrimed, reposing in Stoke-on-Trent
amid bedsteads and domestic crockery i
Would it not then have been an Old Master^
And would not the Field and Notes and
Queries have been agitated by new theories
concerning the origins of Association
footballls' The achievement of early painters
sheds so much light incidentally on the
evolution of human affairs that no one
would have been really surprised. But
writers who are concerned with the history
of ball games would have made the ink fly.
And, as one who has done a good deal of
specialised research in regard to outdoor
origins and artistic evidences, I must
confess to a feeling of regret that, in one
of his aspects anyhow, Mr. Reynolds is
not the Old Master whose mantle he has
assumed. He does the trick so well that
he would be uncommonly useful to us.
I am afraid he knows it! There is some-
thing slightly absurd about the enthusiasm
which is so anxious to find new things
among the old. a 0 c 0
Nevertheless, I feel pretty sure that the
absurdity of affairs is not the whole of it
for him. There must come a point at
which the humorous philosopher wonders
whether, after all, seeming irregularities
are not part of the scheme, and this may
show. In various examples of his painting
there is something to be seen which is not,
technically speaking, there. It was per-
haps not without significance that the
cover of Mr. Punch's last Almanack
Number should give just a hint of " hills
beyond," amid blues and greys and up-
lands of the kind that kenned John Peel.
Mr. Punch and Toby were in the fore-
ground, and " F. R." was in the corner,
but I suspect that Frank Reynolds, or a
large part of him, was among those hills.
Possibly he will some day surprise a world
which even yet does not quite appreciate
that honest laughter is the voice of God.
Meanwhile here is gratitude to him for some
precious additions to our fragments of life.